Drexel University President's Report 2017

The President’s Report highlights the endeavors undertaken by Drexel faculty, professional staff, and students during the past year — work that distinguishes the University as a place for leadership in student success, academics, experiential learning, research, and community engagement.

Future inFocus

In this Report

President's Message

Drexel University is driving to reach the next level of excellence, and 2017 was the year in which some of our most important work came into focus. Drexel’s continued strong showing in national university rankings, a second year of record-high student retention, the enrollment of the largest freshman class in our history, and the launch of our $750 million fundraising campaign brings us to an inflexion point. In short, we see Drexel on an upward arc of success.

And that is by design. We’re a University whose students, faculty, clinicians and professional staff believe in the power of working hard, and working smart. So, a couple of years ago, we began investing more heavily in student financial aid. We put the word out far and wide to prospective students. High school visits ramped up: Guidance counselors at hundreds of schools, who previously had no relationship with Drexel, learned about our unique blend of experiential and classroom studies. Bending the curve sharply on affordability, we held tuition steady and overall charge increases to under 2 percent. Meanwhile, we added 100 tenure-track faculty lines and will dedicate future fundraising efforts to people and programs.

In addition to being the largest ever, the approximately 3,200 new undergraduates in the freshman class for 2017 are highly qualified and more likely to remain enrolled and go on to earn their degrees. They hail from across the region, the nation and internationally, and, in their diversity, they fulfill the promise of inclusion and opportunity that is central to our educational mission.

Academic achievement continues to be the watchword at Drexel, which The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education ranked in the top 40 among private research universities. And more Drexel students and alumni were offered Fulbright scholarships than ever before, with eight receiving the prestigious award in the spring — further evidence of our global engagement.

As we look to the future, we’re encouraged that Drexel’s high-caliber research continues to grow, with new awards for research up 6 percent and such highly competitive awards as the Wellcome Trust ($12 million) to study urban health, and from the U.S. Department of Education ($30 million) to support urban education in West Philadelphia. In November, we announced the establishment of a Fabric Discovery Center, which leverages the University’s national leadership in smart-fabric manufacturing through our participation in the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America.

Our student-athletes continue to excel both on the field, with title-winning performances, and in the classroom, with 3.33 grade-point averages. This academic year, more than 450 student-athletes will compete in 18 varsity sports and another 9,000 students will participate in club or intramural sports.

Our commitment to inclusive economic growth in Philadelphia is centered around plans for Schuylkill Yards, now seeing its first phase come to fruition with the creation of the 1.3-acre Drexel Square just steps from Amtrak’s 30th Street Station — the sixth square in Philadelphia that will join the five designed by William Penn. In addition, we expanded our cradle-to-career efforts with the addition of a second, fifth-grade class at the Science Leadership Academy Middle School, the public school housed at our Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. The Dornsife Center itself is a hub of activity and community outreach.

Drexel’s campus also continues to grow with the addition of new amenities: a high-quality preschool at the newly built Vue32 development, which includes 164 new market-rate apartments; and The Study at University City, bringing high-quality, full-service lodging and dining to the Drexel campus.

The pride we share in Drexel University is built upon progress made in all these areas of University life — progress that is only made possible with the support of the Drexel board of trustees under the leadership of its chairman, Richard Greenawalt. And our faith in the future only grows when we see the progress that our efforts have yielded. “What is now proved was once only imagined,” the English poet William Blake told us.

I am proud to share this report with the Drexel campus community, alumni, and the University’s many friends and allies in the wider community. As you read on, I hope you will see how we’re focused on creating an exciting future — whether it’s training next-generation educators for urban classrooms, learning entrepreneurial skills by actually running businesses, conducting life-saving research, making medical breakthroughs, or improving our community through civic engagement.

Sincerely,

John Fry
President

Student Success

At Drexel University, our future is in focus because we lean into academics, research, athletics and student life with a shared sense that, as we say, ambition can’t wait. It shows in so many ways — best seen in the extraordinary achievements of Drexel students, whom we believe are going to transform the world.

A Record-High Freshman Class

This year’s incoming class of freshmen is among the largest in Drexel’s history, with about 3,200 students coming from 41 states and 66 countries.

At the start of the 2017–18 academic year, Drexel welcomed more than 3,200 freshmen to campus. It was the largest class than the University had seen in years, especially since we implemented a new admissions strategy in 2015 that recruits smaller, but better qualified, freshman classes, leveraging more financial aid to increase student support and improve retention.

Moving from a 2016 fall class of 2,324 students, Drexel’s freshman enrollment this year even appeared headed for the 3,500 mark, with high school seniors in those numbers sending in deposits. And once the incoming class leveled out to its still-record size, that wasn’t the only milestone set this year: Drexel’s yield rate hit 14.9 percent, which beat the previous highest yield rate of 12.7 percent from 2015.

“The success of our university-wide recruitment efforts for the next incoming freshman class shows that our student enrollment and retention strategy is solid and working,” said President John Fry.

The new students came to Philadelphia from 66 countries and 41 states. About 11 percent of the Dragons are international students, with the countries that sent the most Dragons were India, China, Vietnam, Pakistan and Nigeria. About 74 percent of the incoming freshmen hailed from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Massachusetts.

About 13 percent of the freshman class identifies as underrepresented minorities: 6.8 percent identify as Hispanic, 6 percent identify as black or African American, and less than one-tenth of a percent identify as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. One in five new students identify as Asian.

And one constant remains in this new freshman class, as with all others: 100 percent of these freshmen are Drexel Dragons. Learn more about how Drexel’s new student-success strategy created more Dragons.

Drexel’s First Truman Scholar Passes on a Love for Science

Environmental science student Vincent O’Leary was named Drexel’s first-ever recipient of the Truman Scholarship, which would come as no surprise to his fellow students and professors.

When Vincent O’Leary, an environmental science student in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a C.R. “Chuck” and Annette Pennoni Honors College student, was named a 2017 Truman Scholar, a prestigious and highly selective national honor supporting future public service leaders, he was surprised by the good news in a meeting with none other than President John Fry. But for the students, co-op employers and professors who taught O’Leary in class (or, in one case, taught a class co-designed by O’Leary), the honor probably came as no surprise at all. O’Leary has spent his time at Drexel volunteering through the Lindy Center in West Philadelphia classrooms and after school science activities, as well as through co-ops with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That professional experience marked his first as a government employee — with many more to continue, no doubt. Learn more about O’Leary’s longtime, infectious passion for science.

Rankings Hold, Higher Placements

The results are in, and they look great: this year, Drexel moved up several spots in two of the country’s
most prestigious college rankings lists.

The 2018 version of U.S. News & World Report’s annual 2018 “Best Colleges” rankings were released, with Drexel moving two places to take 94th place on this year’s list of the best national universities. This year’s ranking marks a full decade in which Drexel has placed in the top 100 of 300 national colleges and universities on the publication’s exclusive list.

Additionally, the University excelled in The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education College Rankings of 2018, placing 84th out of 1,054 U.S. colleges and universities. Drexel moved nine spots ahead of last year’s rank in the listings, which emphasizes the outcomes of student success. New this year was
the University’s placements in specialized lists, taking the sixth spot in a list of the students’ top schools for career preparation and 38th in a list of U.S. private research universities. Internationally, Drexel made the top 8 percent of ranked institutions in the country this year. The University was included again in the top 400 of 1,102 top international universities by the publications.

Drexel University Online is PA’s #1 for Online Learning

There are approximately 117 online degree programs offered by four-year schools in Pennsylvania — and Drexel’s program nabbed the top spot.

More than one in three Dragons participate in online learning, with a large number preparing for both bachelor’s and master’s programs in areas like computer science, business, engineering, education and psychology.

The rankings were compiled from data evaluating schools in areas like the number of offered online programs, the number of online students and the program cost.

Drexel Is Tops For Entrepreneurship

Drexel University was ranked among the Top 25 undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship by The Princeton Review. Drexel's Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship is nationally recognized as one of the top entrepreneurship schools in the country.

"Investing in research and science pays great dividends for society. In particular, many innovations and advancements have been discovered at universities as a result of scientific and technological breakthroughs supported by the National Institutes of Health.”

Record Number of Drexel Fulbright Grantees

Dragons soared to new heights this year with grants from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

More Drexel students and alumni were offered grants from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program than ever before this year, with a record-breaking eight Dragons receiving the prestigious award.

“The increasing number of Drexel students being recognized by Fulbright reflects the incredible talent and promise of these candidates, as well as the University’s commitment to helping our students achieve both in and out of the classroom,” said Meredith Wooten, PhD, director of the Drexel Fellowships Office, which is operated by the C.R. “Chuck” and Annette Pennoni Honors College.

The students and alumni started their independent research or teaching this fall, traveling to Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Senegal for their scholarship and service.

The number broke the previous record of seven accepted Dragons, reached in both 2014 and 2013 — numbers that were more than double the Fulbright grants awarded to Drexel a decade ago. A total of 18 students and alumni submitted Fulbright proposals this year, with 11 Dragons selected as semifinalists. Half of the final grant awardees came from the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems.

Pictured above: Fulbright winner Claudia Gutierrez, who is pursuing an MD, is now working with experts in tissue engineering in Switzerland.

Fellowships 2016-17

2016-17 was another record-breaking year for fellowships. At least 85 students and recent alumni have been recognized by nationally-competitive fellowships and awards with an estimated value of over $2.4 million.

Notable records and accolades include:

9 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, 4 Honorable Mentions

8 Fulbright student grants, 1 alternate, 3 finalists

6 GEM Graduate Associate Fellows

4 NIH NRSA Ruth Kirchstein Graduate Fellowships

3 Udall Scholarships (placing Drexel among top U.S. universities in nation

Fulbrights in Depth

Since 2007, 40 Drexel students and recent alumni have received Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to 28 different countries. In addition, three have been named Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors. Since the Fulbright program was established in 1946, 51 Drexel students and recent alumni and 11 faculty and staff have received Fulbright grants. And these numbers only reflect those individuals who applied through the University, apart from awards won by alums who applied through a graduate institution or “at-large.”

Dragons’ Academic and Athletic Success

This year, Drexel’s student athletes made gains in both their scholarship and sport.

Drexel women's and men’s tennis, men's golf and the men's swimming and diving teams received the NCAA's Academic Performance Program public recognition award given to teams ranked in the top 10 percent of their sports for academic progress rates (APRs). Most of these teams have a history of being recognized for their academic success: women's tennis earned this award eight years in a row, with men’s golf and swimming teams receiving their second honor and the men's tennis team their first.

Outside of the classroom, an equally remarkable feat was attained: The Drexel rowing team winning its fifth consecutive overall team title at Philadelphia’s Dad Vail Regatta. The women’s team won its first-ever points title, making this remarkable occasion the first in a decade that a school won both the men’s and women’s heavyweight gold medals during the annual tournament.

Med Student Wins Excellence in Medicine Minority Scholars Award

One MD candidate at the College of Medicine received the prestigious award from the American Medical Association Foundation.

Joy Abiola Fatunbi, a third-year medical student in the College of Medicine, was named the 2017 recipient of the American Medical Association Foundation’s Excellence in Medicine Minority Scholars Award. The honor is given to physicians exemplifying the highest values of volunteerism, engagement, leadership and dedication to caring for underserved populations.

Fatunbi is actively involved and engaged with student organizations on campus and with community programs off campus. In 2016, she founded the Pediatric Pal Navigator Program (PPN), which is a health navigator program that identifies and supports children who have not received recommended vaccines and/or those affected by significant social determinants of health. This fall, PPN was implemented into the College of Medicine’s curriculum as part of the Longitudinal Community Care Practicum, an inter-professional, community-based learning course providing experiential learning in the community. Fatunbi also holds leadership positions for Drexel’s American Medical Association and Student National Medical Association chapters, and advocates for homeless and displaced citizens through her work with the student-run free health clinic at Prevention Point Philadelphia.

Academic Excellence

Whether it’s developing new routes to rewarding careers, seeking cutting-edge solutions to society’s problems, or building new leadership, a university focused on the future must be all about supporting outstanding academics and growing resources.

Training a New Breed of Teachers with a Passion for The Urban Classroom

For the first time, Drexel’s School of Education is preparing students from any major to graduate with a middle school teaching certification and a special focus on the urban classroom. A $1.2 million grant made the launch possible.

Aja Sor thought she would be nervous this winter when she taught a group of fourth graders at the Andrew Jackson School in South Philadelphia about balancing weights. She had never led a class and, until a few months earlier, had never really considered being a teacher. But as a member of the first cohort of Drexel students in the DragonsTeach Middle Years program, which allows students in any major to earn a middle school teaching certification, she was at the beginning of a journey that will give her all the tools she needs. And she’ll still receive the bachelor’s in psychology she had been planning on before learning about Middle Years.

The initiative launched this year received a $1.2 million grant from the Philadelphia School Partnership that will allow the University to graduate 40 students each year, beginning in 2020, who can help fill Philadelphia’s pressing need for middle school teachers. Sor was in the classroom as part of the first of three introductory courses that students take before committing to the program, which requires roughly 50 credits to complete. In the end, she said, the nerves weren’t necessary.

“Talking to 28 fourth graders who want to hear you talk, it relaxes you,” said Sor. “It came easy to me.”

Drexel President John Fry views science and math education, which the program emphasizes, as vital to Philadelphia’s future — and he has made Middle Years a high priority. “We have a rare opportunity to help meet the School District of Philadelphia’s need for middle school math and science teachers,” Fry says. “In addition, we’ll be able to launch Drexel graduates on rewarding careers, and we’ll also be able to develop an intensive teacher training program that, hopefully, if we’re good at what we do, will serve as a national model.”

Next up for Sor in the second DragonsTeach introductory course was teaching high school. Not long ago, she might have blanched at the idea. But she’s quickly finding her footing in the classroom.

“It’s a little daunting,” she said, “but if I can handle 28 fourth graders, I’ll be OK.”

New on Rounds: Newly Named Dean Sees Inquiry as Key to Best Care

Look for Laura N. Gitlin, PhD, the next dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions, to ask plenty of questions. The applied research sociologist and distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins University, returning to her Philadelphia roots, specializes in research, training and community-based interventions to transform health care delivery and improve the wellbeing of older adults and their families. But she has great faith in individuals, especially as they age, knowing best how they want to live. Look for that spirit of inquiry to enliven the work of CNHP. Read more here.

Nina Henderson Endows Provost Post

At Drexel, Nina Henderson wears many hats — alumna, trustee, chair of the academic affairs committee, and a member of the executive and finance committees. But supporting teaching at the University is her special passion, and she found a unique means to do that this year. With a generous gift, Henderson established the “Nina Henderson Provost at Drexel University.” She sees it as a way to ensure that the provost “will have the tools to invest in timely initiatives that develop, enable and deliver ideas over time, and with a future view, to continue the gift that is a Drexel education.” Read more here.

Scott Cooper, PhD, brought new leadership and an international perspective to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University this year — all the way from the city of Victoria, British Columbia. Read more here.

London Visit Caps MBA at Vanguard Experience

The Drexel LeBow MBA at Vanguard for mid-career studies graduated its second cohort of students this year, and the program also launched its first annual international educational experience in London. The capstone trip allowed the nearly three-dozens students to consult with British colleagues, tour UK companies and visit the London Stock Exchange.

Bringing Federal Expertise to Juvenile Justice Research

For new ideas on juvenile justice reform efforts in the Philadelphia region, Drexel turned to Robert L. Listenbee, an attorney who served as administrator of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He comes to Drexel as a Stoneleigh Foundation Visiting Fellow.

Former Justice Department official Robert L. Listenbee adds to the firepower of Drexel’s Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab in the Department of Psychology, where he joins Naomi E. Goldstein, PhD, director and also a Stoneleigh Foundation Fellow, and fellow Kevin Bethel, retired deputy police commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department.

The lab focuses on using social science research to improve policy and practice within the juvenile justice system and emphasizes the role of adolescent development in legal decision-making and legal outcomes. At Justice, Listenbee “led this country’s efforts to reform juvenile justice policy and practice, according to Goldstein. The objectives for Listenbee’s fellowship include working with the city and state’s juvenile justice, criminal justice and child welfare agencies to advance shared policy priorities. During his fellowship, Listenbee will focus on mentoring Stoneleigh Fellows, who are accomplished professionals working across systems to improve youth outcomes. He will also mentor Stoneleigh’s Emerging Leader Fellows, a group of early career professionals getting the hands-on experience needed to become social-change leaders in their fields. Listenbee will examine ways to improve employment opportunities for youth experiencing homelessness, especially those who have been involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Read more here.

Top Leadership Researcher Joins Management Faculty

One of the world’s top researchers on leadership joined the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business Management Department faculty this summer.

Daan van Knippenberg, PhD, comes to Drexel after 15 years as professor of organizational management in the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam and will take on the role of Joseph F. Rocereto Professor of Management.

Home-Grown Legal Eagle: Thomas R. Kline School of Law Leadership

Daniel M. Filler, JD, takes over as dean of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at a time of great excitement as Kline Law prepares to open its trial advocacy center in downtown Philadelphia, a state-of-the-art training facility for advocates within blocks of the city’s criminal, civil and federal courts. Filler moved to the dean’s post after serving as senior associate dean for academic and faculty affairs, and teaching as a member of Kline Law’s inaugural faculty. Read more here and here.

“When we designed the law school, we very much wanted it to be a law school with deep roots in the community. We saw an opportunity because no other local law school had that same intense focus on grounding itself in the Philadelphia community.”

-Daniel M. Filler, dean, Kline Law

Nano-materials Pioneer Furnished with Endowed Chair

With multiple patents for research as founder and director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Yury Gogotsi, PhD, has now been honored as the inaugural Charles T. and Ruth M. Bach Professor at Drexel University.

For Yury Gogotsi, PhD, the endowed chair is an opportunity to push the boundaries of what can be done with MXenes, the new family of two-dimensional materials discovered and developed in Drexel’s labs, as well as other nanomaterials that his group is developing for energy, water and health applications. A flexible allotment of money will allow him to hire doctoral and postdoctoral students and to buy new instruments when the need arises. More than anything, it will fuel his pursuit of new ideas. Read more here.

“This endowment allows us to explore some risky ideas — to do something that is high-risk, high-return. This is always very important in science because unless we take risks, we have little ability to really breakthrough.”

-Yury Gogotsi

Heart of the Matter

With its 2016 Individual Biomedical Research Award to Amy Throckmorton, PhD, an associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University, the Hartwell Foundation hopes to support early-stage, innovative biomedical research with the potential to bene t children — in Throckmorton’s case, children with life-threatening heart conditions. The award provides funding to individual researchers for three years at $100,000 per year. Read more here.

Women Crack the Code

Too few women pursue careers in computing, but a Drexel initiative at the College of Computing and Informatics hopes to alter that picture.

The CCI Women in Computing Initiative has a bold goal of increasing the number of female students pursuing CCI programs by 50 percent in five years, particularly at the undergraduate level. Three strategies: Focus on the recruitment and retention of women in CCI as a sustained college-wide priority, including financial investments and tailored programming; strengthen and sustain partnerships with targeted high schools and two-year colleges to expand
awareness, enhance early stage training, and build a recruitment pipeline; and build overarching industry and donor partnerships to enhance large-scale mentorship networks and
increase financial support.

Better Apart: Hospitality and Sport Management Find New Homes

With its split into two separate centers, the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management will bring new resources to students studying the hospitality field and sports administration. The Center for Sport Management programs will be affiliated with the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business and will house the BS and MS in Sport Management along with associated minors. The Center for Food and Hospitality Management will be affiliated with the College of Nursing and Health Professions. The Center will house the BS programs in Culinary Arts and Science and Hospitality Management, and the MS programs in Food Science and Culinary Arts and Science along with associated minors. Read more here.

“The contemporary role of information and technology is not simply about building tools or infrastructure, but rather is a key driver for problem solving and innovation cutting across our broad economy and society as a whole. In order to do that effectively, our students need to have the opportunity to understand industry and society needs, to integrate and apply academic knowledge into skills of hands-on problem solving and to develop professional skills like teamwork, organization, [and] communication.”

-Yi Deng, dean, College of Computing & Informatics

Experiential Learning

A University doesn’t make the nation’s top 10 list of schools for best preparing students for careers without having deep roots in experiential learning — something Drexel pioneered in 1919. As leaders in co-op, our future is in focus, because our past holds such a rich store of experience.

A New Home for Experiential Learning

Saxbys’ second student-run café on campus opened in June, doubling the opportunities for Drexel students to get real-world experience running a business.

Students were buzzing on both sides of the counter in late June, when Saxbys opened its second entirely student-run café on the Drexel University campus, on the ground level of the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building. President John Fry and Drexel trustee Stanley W. Silverman ’69, ’74 joined Saxbys CEO Nick Bayer for a celebratory shot of espresso to mark the occasion, and Fry reflected on the relationship the two entities have shared since Bayer first suggested a new format for on-the-job education.

“I believe our University does its best work in partnerships, and this has been an exemplary partnership for the last four years,” Fry said.

The new café joined the one opened in April 2015 at 34th Street and Lancaster Avenue — both are operated by Dragons who make every drink, analyze every profit-and-loss report, organize every team meeting, plan every marketing push and schedule every event. Fifty-eight Drexel students and alumni were employed by Saxbys at the time of the June opening, accounting for more than $550,000 of payroll, and 14 students have worked co-ops with the coffee company. Dan Kinsinger (shown above) is one of 14 Dragons to co-op at Saxbys. He became a Student Café Executive Officer in 2015 and is now overseeing other executive officers across Philadelphia — and he’s still just a junior.

Both Fry and Bayer took time at the PISB launch to praise the work of Tauheed Baukman, a junior business and engineering student in the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business who will be running the new café.

“That’s a young man who’s going to make a huge, huge difference in this world,” Bayer said.

The crowd streaming through the new café might have been focused on lattes and iced coffees, but the future of the space is just as much about the doors it will open for students ready to learn how to operate a business.

“Experiential learning, in John’s words to me, is the future of education,” Bayer said. “It’s about giving young people the opportunity to learn by doing.”

Drexel Co-op Offers Deep Dive on Private Wealth Management

Calvin Kim was two-and-a-half years into a pre-dentistry program before he realized he was in the wrong place and transferred to Drexel to study finance in the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business. During his co-op at Goldman Sachs, he worked in the private wealth management division in Washington, D.C., helping ultra-high-net-worth clients manage and grow their wealth. As the only co-op in the office, he worked with his colleagues to analyze the performance of investment vehicles, create portfolio reviews and research new spaces and markets to invest in, making sure to learn as much as possible along the way.

“My co-op experience exceeded all my expectations,” said Kim. “Because it was a six-month program, I learned so much and I feel like I’m ready to take on the real world.”

Stopping Traffic

A Drexel environmental science student spent her spring on a co-op in Vietnam protecting the world’s most trafficked animal.

Ashleigh Jugan, a fourth-year environmental science major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was halfway around the world this spring working with an animal you’ve probably never heard of. The pangolin looks something like a cross between an armadillo, an anteater and a reptile — or a long-lost Pokémon. It’s also believed to be the most heavily trafficked animal on the planet.

Jugan’s 10-week co-op in Vietnam working with Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, an organization devoted to creating harmony between people and nature in which wildlife like the pangolin can flourish, gave her a chance to reaffirm that conservation in the field is her true passion.

“I couldn't even describe a more ideal job for myself: out in the jungle rescuing pangolins, caring for them and bringing them back to health before they are released back into the wild,” Jugan said. “Every day I feel like I'm making a difference in the world, helping to ensure the Sunda pangolin does not go extinct. I've never worked so hard, or enjoyed a job as much as I have working here.”

Experiential Learning Stories

Fighting Food Waste with Repurposed Recipes

Half of all produce in the United States is thrown away, pouring into landfills and depriving hungry Americans of healthy food. The Drexel Food Lab in the Department of Culinary Arts and Food Science is working to change that.

At a food waste advocacy training held May 8 in collaboration with the James Beard Foundation, the Food Lab brought together some of the brightest food minds in Philadelphia to discuss small-scale solutions for long-term progress.

Food Lab students were tasked with preparing the food at a reception following the training — using scraps and leftovers such as the woody stems of broccoli and beet powder.

“The Food Lab has really instilled this idea into my everyday life,” said Silvia Pinto, culinary arts ‘17, who made an arancini dish for the event. “The idea of minimizing food waste is a crucial part of the food industry and we definitely have to take it into account and educate others about how food waste can be kept to a minimum.”

Labs Get a Facelift: New Spaces Foster Collaboration

Drexel engineering students and faculty now have a unique, customized shared lab and office space on campus that’s much more conducive to research than the individual labs formerly used by top researchers. But the improvements to academic spaces doesn’t stop there. Drexel’s Research Laboratory Plan will use approximately $49 million worth of investment to create and update labs in the Bossone Research Enterprise Center, the Center for Automation Technology, the LeBow Engineering Center and 3101 Market St., where the shared lab was built. Read more here.

“I’m all about the future and what’s next, the next big thing. It’s just the way I think.”

-Tyler Roach, Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship student, whose virtual reality projects could help medical students train and deaf individuals have conversations without lip-reading or sign language

Small Wonder

Architecture students took on a little project with a big payoff this year, building a tiny house as part of a class challenge that taught them about construction, urban farming and permaculture.

A dozen Drexel architecture students helped build a 200-square-foot tiny house as part of a three-term design-build studio challenge led by local architect and adjunct professor Tim Kearney that wrapped in the winter.

The class began in spring 2016 with a design competition, followed by construction in the summer on the corner of 36th and Filbert streets, the former site of the University City High School. The hands-on process gave students a chance to learn about the tiny house movement, urban farming and permaculture while building the trailer-based tiny house, which was donated to Greensgrow, an urban agriculture organization.

“The difference between drawing something on paper or on a computer and actually working on it — I mean, some of these kids have never held a hammer before — it’s been pretty wonderful,” Kearney said. “There is nothing like the experience of actually building something.”

Criminal Justice Abroad

Abbey Meyer was one of five Drexel students who went to Scandinavia last December on the maiden voyage of an intensive course abroad designed to examine the differences between the American criminal justice system — focused on deterrence and punishment — and its counterparts in Norway and Sweden, which prioritize restoration and rehabilitation. She came back with a newfound appreciation for the diverse approaches to criminal justice around the world, and she’s been telling people about the experience ever since.

“It opened up my eyes to a whole different world outside of where we live,” said Meyer.

When Altruism Meets Ingenuity

For his third co-op as a Pennoni Honors College student, Mansoor Siddiqui ’17 wanted to improve education. He took advantage of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship’s support in the form of an Entrepreneurship Co-op that allowed him six months to build out his vision: a software platform that provides step-by-step assessment of a student’s progress and instructions to help them improve along the way.

Siddiqui’s product, known as ProjectOne, currently works for Calculus 101, allowing students to explore the most pertinent rules and concepts and fill in any evident knowledge gaps with embedded definitions and videos. Using artificial intelligence based on data collected from student responses, ProjectOne can make recommendations and attempt interventions to ensure students address weaknesses.

Siddiqui was given a stipend by the Close School to make ProjectOne a reality, had a dedicated workspace in the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship, and received mentorship from faculty members during his co-op. It gave him a chance to turn his idea into a business.

“This gave me the opportunity to develop my prototype, roll it out and have a plan going forward,” Siddiqui said. “I never would have been able to achieve all of that without the co-op.”

Research & Innovation

Founding the nation’s only freestanding school of entrepreneurship, supporting student researchers building a futuristic "hyperloop" transportation pod, securing an all-time school record new patents, imagining a new innovation district that functions as a crucible for invention, business startups and inclusive growth — that’s the spirit of research and innovation that courses through everything we do at Drexel. This year, and every year.

Collecting Data That Could Save Children’s Lives in Crashes

Biomedical engineering researcher Sri Balasubramanian is conducting a first-of-its-kind study on the effect of impact collisions on pediatric subjects — data which has never before been available and will help vehicle restraint manufacturers build safer devices for children.

Imagine you’re driving down the highway at a high speed with your child buckled in the back seat. Another car cuts you off, and you swerve to avoid a collision. In that moment, your body moves sharply to the side, throwing you out of the best position for a seatbelt to protect you. The same dynamic happens to your child.

Would you both survive?

“These conditions have never been studied before,” says Sriram Balasubramanian, PhD, an associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel. “We want to understand what happens during this crash-avoidance phase. Even with the best restraint system, if you’re sub-optimally positioned, it’s not going to work for you.”

His research, conducted in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, is the first to study human test subjects that include children as young as 9 years in a human oscillator sled. The goal is to collect data on what exactly happens to a person’s bodily movements in the seconds before an accident. Think in-car collision-avoidance cameras and autonomous breaking systems.

His work will provide makers of vehicle restraint systems with data, previously unavailable, on live child subjects.

“Crashes are the leading cause of death and acquired disability for children,” says Kristy Arbogast, the project’s principal investigator and co-director of CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention. On average in 2015, three children were killed and nearly 500 injured every day in the United States in traffic crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “This type of work is necessary to chip away at these numbers until we have zero,” she says.

The oscillator sled Balasubramanian built in his lab is based on bumper cars. Balasubramanian actually spent a day at New Jersey’s Six Flags amusement park in the name of science, instrumenting and collecting data as the cars banged around. That translated into a safe human accelerator made up of an automobile’s front driver seat on a platform that, for this study, moves six feet from side to side at about 1g. “It’s a good poke,” Balasubramanian says.

Takata, the Japanese automotive company that makes seatbelts and airbags, has awarded the researchers about $5.4 million in grants, including $2 million for the current project. University of Virginia researchers also are collaborators, conducting cadaver tests at higher speeds.

Ultimately, the data they collect will result in better-designed restraints to account for out-of-position scenarios. “It’s going to save somebody’s life,” says Balasubramanian.

School Readiness Focus of $11 million Autism Center Research Grant

The work that Diana Robins, professor and research program leader in the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, plans to do will impact the lives of more than 8,000 children over a five-year stretch. Her research will explore whether detection and treatment of the autism spectrum disorder improves readiness for school. The work will be funded by a $11.4 million Autism Center for Excellence grant from the National Institutes of Health. Read more here. In addition, the Autism Center this year was awarded $2.76 million as part of the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Initiative, and $518,000 from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity at the Department of Defense to study effects of prenatal polyunsaturated fatty-acid levels on risk of autism spectrum disorder.

LeBow Behavioral Science Lab Explores the Minds of Investors

Rajneesh Suri, PhD, professor and vice dean for research and strategic partnerships for Drexel’s Bennett S. LeBow College of Business, knows that many business leaders over the years have wanted to be able to explore the minds of their customers and clients, to find out what they wanted most in terms of service, and to meet their personal and business needs. SEI and Drexel University teamed up to do just that. Read more here.

Smart Fabrics, Pennsylvania Set Up Seamless Partnership

Genevieve Dion, director of Drexel’s Center For Functional Fabrics, this year joined Gov. Tom Wolf to announce the new “Pennsylvania Fabric Discovery Center” at Drexel, where the University will help companies, entrepreneurs and innovators take their advanced-textile concepts from prototype to product. The center will be part of a national network intended to lower the barrier to commercialization for functional fabrics, resulting in advanced textiles that do things like see, hear, sense, communicate, generate and store energy. Read more here.

Westphal's Fox Collection Goes Viral

Google’s new virtual exhibition includes iconic pieces from Drexel’s Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection at the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. It’s part of an effort to catalog 3,000 years of the world’s fashion in the largest virtual exhibition of style. Read more here.

Drexel Is in the Top 20 Percent for Tech Transfer

In 2017, Drexel University was recognized by independent economic think tank the Milken Institute as one of the top 50 universities for commercialization in the United States, or 46th out of 225 institutions. Drexel scored high in terms of actual numbers of inventions and when those numbers were adjusted per research dollars. Typically, the University receives about $110 million per year in research expenditures, but its output rivals that of universities that receive anywhere from three to five times that amount. During the past year alone, the University’s accelerator Drexel Ventures negotiated 24 license and option agreements, including four startups, to advance the commercialization of promising technologies. Eight of those agreements were based on technologies funded by the Coulter-Drexel Translational Research Partnership and the Drexel Ventures Innovation Fund. Drexel researchers reported 119 new inventions, and the University received 52 issued U.S. patents, an all-time record for the institution. “The culture of use-inspired research and scholarship that exists at Drexel is unique and differentiates us from our peers,” says Senior Vice Provost for Research Aleister Saunders, PhD. Find out how Drexel moves great ideas to market here.

Science That Will Revolutionize Batteries

The day may not be long off when it will be possible to fully charge a cellphone or other electronic device in seconds, thanks to the work of a team of researchers in Drexel’s College of Engineering led by Distinguished University and Bach professor Yury Gogotsi, PhD, DSc. The team created a new electrode design made from MXene, a conductive two-dimensional material invented at Drexel, that can be charged in tens of milliseconds, paving the way for the creation of smaller, better energy-storage devices, such as batteries and supercapacitors. In the six years since scientists in Drexel’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering discovered MXenes, researchers in 277 organizations in 36 countries have published research investigating ways to use the promising new material in a variety of applications.

A Tech-Transfer Factory for Bringing Life-Saving Ideas to Market

A startup founded by a pair of College of Medicine scientists promises to give people diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer a longer life by stopping cancer cells from spreading. Drexel’s Alessandro Fatatis, MD, PhD, and Olimpia Meucci, MD, PhD (along with Joe Salvino, PhD, now a professor at Wistar Institute) founded Kerberos Biopharma to bring to market a potentially life-extending compound that works by blocking cancer cells in the bloodstream from traveling to new parts of the body, where they can form new cancer colonies. Already a decade in development, their work received an extra boost this year when they were one of three Drexel biopharmaceutical startups that won seed funds in 2017 from the Coulter-Drexel Translational Research Partnership Program, a unique tech-transfer partnership that provides translational health science ideas with proof-of-concept grants, guidance and expert startup assistance.

A Pioneer in the Study of Water Pathogens

When the National Water Research Institute awarded Charles N. Haas, PhD, its 2017 Clarke Prize in October, the organization was recognizing important public health science that goes back four decades. Early in Haas’ career, regulators had limited means to truly assess the safety of municipal water supplies. Through his groundbreaking studies of the waterborne pathogen giardiasis in the ’80s, Haas — who is the L.D. Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering and head of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering — developed standards for safe microbial levels that were adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency. Haas went on to serve as the first author of the first complete guidebook for assessing the disease risks of many waterborne microbes, and he has continued to challenge our knowledge as recently as this year, when he identified previously unknown risks to sewage treatment workers of airborne Ebola infection. His widely cited and prolific body of work has influenced public health policies around the world and made countless lives healthier, earning him the honorific, “The father of quantitative microbial risk assessment.” Learn how Haas earned the Clarke Prize here.

Explorer’s Tradition to Continue with Water-Study Grant

The 20th-century expeditions to Asia by Philadelphia-area naturalist Brooke Dolan II inspired a descendant this year to continue the tradition of discovering new knowledge about the natural world — by way of a generous research gift to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Read more here.

Bread Lab Rising

Drexel’s Bread Lab teamed up with star chef Marc Vetri to develop a series of baguettes that will be sold at Whole foods. The breads will be made with heirloom whole grains from Castle Valley Mill in Bucks County. The breads are richer than regular white-flour versions. The result is a more flavorful bread that is also easier on the digestive system.

The Bread Lab is led by Stephen Jones, a visiting fellow at Drexel’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation. Beyond making bread, the long-term goal of the lab is to connect with communities around Drexel and explore solutions to food-access challenges. The bread line is the first of what the Bread Lab hopes will be a line of products developed in the coming years in partnership with local businesses.

A Toastmasters Coach in Your Phone

Two international students tackled their English-language anxieties by building Orai, an app that uses artificial intelligence to help anyone become a better public speaker.

When Danish Dhamani, BS mechanical engineering ’17, and Paritosh Gupta, computer science ’18, first came to Drexel, they were at a loss for words. English was a second language for them both, and public speaking — in class, at job interviews, even in one-on-one conversation — was an impenetrable obstacle. But the pair, who met as dorm mates, believed that if people uncomfortable with public speaking had a tool to guide their practice in a safe space, they could improve, bit by bit, and shake their fears. Enter Orai, a mobile app that records and transcribes speech, analyzes it in seconds and delivers feedback on filler words, pace, energy and clarity. They released the free app last spring and are now working on a next-generation prototype that can offer “human-like feedback” on mannerisms, body language and facial tics. The app has already made a difference in the lives of its creators. “I am a product of my product,” says Dhamani. “Now I can go in front of any type of audience and speak my heart out.” Discover what inspired these students to innovate here.

A Brilliant New Approach to Gaming

Some recent graduates of Drexel’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio, an incubator for student-run video game startups, are aiming for commercial success with an unusual game experience. Sole is a quiet, cerebral alternative to the typical action shooter, and it stood out as one of 150 finalists in the 2016 International Mobile Gaming Awards, from a field of 3,000 entries that included Pokemon Go. It is the creation of Gossamer Games, a Philadelphia-based game studio formed by Thomas Sharpe, BS game art and production ’16; Nina DeLucia, BS animation and visual effects ’16; Vincent De Tommaso; and Nabeel Ansari. In Sole, the player travels through a somber, desolate landscape as the only source of light, illuminating the world as it is discovered. “I want to explore games as an empathetic medium,” Sharpe says. “There are some experiences and some emotions that you can only communicate through doing something, and I think play is a perfect medium for that. It lets you explore different perspectives and see things in a different light.”

“To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to make a ton of mistakes. Being in a university is the only time students can actually take big risks with minimal financial consequences. I want students to take all those risks with me, while they’re at Drexel, so they can succeed once they leave.”

-Frank Lee, professor of digital media and director of the Entrepreneurial Game Studio

Editing Software That Can Influence How You Feel

One of this year’s promising student startups and winners of the Drexel Startup Day business competition was born out of consulting work that students in a Bennett S. LeBow College of Business class did for the U.S. State Department on ways to neutralize violent extremist recruitment efforts of college students across social media. After the class ended, co-founders Ethan Bresnahan; Jeff Nowak, BS legal studies ’17; and Alexandra Dodson, BA communications ’17, created Boost Linguistics, a software startup that uses the power of words and emotion for positive influence, helping businesses to write better marketing material that fosters an emotional connection with their audiences.

An Investigation of What Latin American Cities Can Teach Us About Better Urban Health

As the world’s population continues to shift toward cities, it’s critically important that scientists and scholars gather insight into how to support sustainable, healthy urban living. Ana Diez Roux, MD, PhD, dean of Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health, will direct an interdisciplinary team of researchers from 11 Latin American and three U.S. institutions in a long-term study of healthy policy challenges and innovations in hundreds of cities in Latin America and the Caribbean. “Health and environmental sustainability are closely entwined,” Diez Roux explains. “This is because the environment affects health — for example, levels of air pollution and heat have especially strong health impacts in cities — but many of the things we can do to make people healthier, like promoting active travel and consumption of fruits and vegetables, also have favorable implications for the environment. We need to think of these things as synergistic, and that is a key goal of the project.” The five-year, $12 million project is funded by the Wellcome Trust, a global charity that supports research aimed at understanding the changing Earth, how it affects our health, and how solutions can benefit both.

Hope for Early Detection of Autism Disorder in Children

One of the challenges of diagnosing anxiety disorders in children on the spectrum is the similarity of autism and anxiety symptoms. For example, a child may avoid a social situation either because they are afraid of social rejection, which is an anxiety symptom, or because they are not socially motivated, which is an autism symptom. A new method of distinguishing between the two was devised by Drexel assistant research professor in the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute Connor Kerns, and proven in tests late last year to be a reliable new tool in the autism arsenal.

Civic Engagement

Founded more than 125 years ago in Philadelphia — a city of neighborhoods — Drexel University is proving that its goal of becoming the nation’s most civically engaged university can change lives both on campus and beyond.

Engagement Starts in School

Drexel’s partnership with the Philadelphia School District to support neighborhood public schools is part of a broader effort to bolster education and create more opportunities for area residents and their families.

When Lucy Kerman stepped inside Science Leadership Academy Middle School for the first time, she was moved by what she saw.

Kerman, Drexel University’s senior vice provost for University and Community Partnerships, knows a thing or two about university-assisted neighborhood schooling, from having previously helped to establish the highly-regarded Penn Alexander School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001.

But her visit to SLA-MS, Drexel’s newly launched partner public school in West Philadelphia, felt different.

“I have never seen a classroom that engaged,” says Kerman.

Drexel helped to launch SLA-MS with the School District of Philadelphia and the school’s nonprofit educational partner, Inquiry Schools, in September 2016. It opened inside a temporary location in Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships with a mission to provide hands-on, project-based education to 88 fifth-graders, most of them from the surrounding Mantua and Powelton neighborhoods. As the school matures, it is projected to hold 360 students in grades 5–8 and will allow nearby Samuel Powel Elementary to expand grades and classrooms.

Its arrival is an example of Drexel’s long-standing commitment to provide support — both curricular and material — to neighborhood public schools, led by staff and faculty including Kerman and School of Education Dean Nancy Songer.

At the heart of it all is Christian Edge (shown above), Drexel’s director of K–12 school work, who serves as a full-time liaison between the University and the middle school. Edge is an education specialist who came to Drexel with experience running the after-school program at nearby Lea Elementary. He spends every day inside SLA-MS and Drexel’s other local partner public schools, which include Powel Elementary and Morton McMichael School.

A new Promise Neighborhood Grant for the area, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, recently expanded Drexel’s list of partner schools to include Alain Locke, Belmont Charter, West Philadelphia High and Martha Washington. When a school needs prizes for Math Night, or a reading specialist, or a field trip to a museum, he’s who they ask for help.

Science Leadership Academy is just one example of Drexel’s goal to be the most civically engaged university in the country.

A Class Patch Adams Would Love

Not many university classes include students playing a ukulele while dressed in banana suit.

But that is just one of the outcomes from a Drexel University class where students perform live for young patients at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Once a week students visit CHOP’s Seacrest Studios to act out scripts that they write. The shows take place in front of a live crowd of patients and are broadcast throughout the hospital for patients who cannot attend.

The “Story Medicine” course is taught by Nomi Eve, an assistant teaching professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English and Philosophy. The class helps to build students’ writing and performance skills. But the impact goes well beyond the basics of most classes. Beyond entertaining young patients, the course has had an impact on students as well. A number of students have gone on to apply for co-ops at CHOP as well as volunteering at the hospital.

The Story Medicine course is a practical take on the film “Patch Adams,” which was based on the life of Dr. hunter “Patch” Adams who uses humor to treat patients. The course is one of several community-based learning classes at Drexel, which is part of its broader goal of becoming the most civically engaged university in the country.

Drexel Dragons travel to Sub-Saharan Africa

Drexel University President John Fry and a Drexel delegation recently traveled through several countries in sub-Saharan Africa to visit water sanitation and hygiene projects developed by World Vision, an international agency that tackles the root causes of poverty. He was joined by Shannon Márquez, vice provost in the Office of International Programs and professor and director of Office of Global Health in Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health, and David and Dana Dornsife ’83, philanthropists and University benefactors (and, in Dana’s case, alumna), whose generous donations benefited the Drexel school named in their honor and also established the Dornsife Global Development Scholars program.

“The Dornsife family has enabled us to do amazing things locally and globally, as we work in our community and abroad,” said Fry. “The context is so different in Africa, but you see the same principles of humanity and deep expertise at work.”

Eagles Ride Versus Autism Latest Part of Team’s Long Game

The Philadelphia Eagles have long been involved in autism-related causes, and now the inaugural Eagles Autism Challenge bike ride and 5K run/walk — announced in September — will benefit Drexel’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. With two other institutions, Drexel will form a coalition of the top researchers and scientists in the field to accelerate the pace of discovery and allow the latest research and treatment to reach one of the largest communities of children and adults with autism in the country, thanks to the extensive patient networks of each institution. Read more here.

How Drexel Won a $30M Grant for West Phila-delphia Schools

The work to secure the five-year, $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to West Philadelphia was part of an effort that began in 2011.

Drexel University has been involved from the start in helping to develop the Promise Neighborhoods program design. It began five years ago with planning meetings, as members of

the Mantua neighborhood discussed their goals for the community and shared frustrations that children from the neighborhood weren’t being given the tools needed to reach their potential.

The efforts culminated in a $30 million Promise Neighborhoods grant that will be paired with $76 million in matching funds that will be used to increase a range of resources and services for seven area schools.

“You aren’t just creating new-economy jobs,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. “You’re also making sure that these jobs are accessible to your neighbors and our citizens, and that’s really fantastic.”

Stand Up for Science

A number of Drexel scientists, professors, researchers and students participated in the March for Science on Earth Day, April 22. The rallies in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and other cities around the country were designed to remind everyone – including policymakers, business leaders and educators – about the benefits of federal funding for scientific research.

Connect with The Community Through Art

Drexel’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation and other University City organizations hosted a series of community and arts programming events designed to help bring residents together and increased foster dialogue about the neighborhood. The events included art exhibits, movie nights, a barbecue and games.

“My hope is that what we do draws people to this area,” said Hannah Rechtschaffen, a project manager at the Lindy Institute.

Risks and Rewards

Emergency responders on ground zero after 9/11. Coal miners heading down to what could be their last day in a dangerous mine. Asbestos workers handling hazardous material. Every day, regular people put themselves through dangerous and unhealthy conditions to earn a steady paycheck — and award-winning photojournalist Earl Dotter has been documenting their lives for over 50 years. The resulting oeuvre was the subject of two simultaneous photography exhibits in the Drexel Collection at Drexel University.

The First-Ever NEA-Funded Creative Art Therapies Lab

Modern society has distanced us from artistic expression that could be a natural antidote to daily stressors such as chronic pain, trauma, and pressure from performance and caregiving, says Girija Kaimal, EdD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. But with the help of an unusually generous, two-year grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, she and Associate Professor Joke Brandt, PhD, established this year an arts and health lab called Arts Research on Chronic Stress to study how arts and arts therapies can reduce pain, lower stress hormones and alleviate fatigue to help us to live healthier lives. The two-year, renewable grant has the potential to run for eight full years and to generate empirical validation for the field.

The students spend time at Drexel’s ExCITe Center and the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. “The whole ‘STEAM’ philosophy is about multidisciplinary integration,” said Youngmoo Kim, a professor in the College of Engineering and director of the ExCITe Center.

One highlight of the camp was a field trip to the Philadelphia Eagles’ NovaCare Complex where they got to meet Eagles safety Malcom Jenkins and learn about heart rate monitors, sleep hygiene and the food that fuels world-class athletes.

Back on campus, the Young Dragons learned about physics and algorithms through dance and body movement; music technology was used to learn about circuits and electronics and visual arts activities were used to learn about geometry and the visualization of data and information. There was even a game that gave students a chance to learn about coding.

Helping Young Adults with Autism Succeed

A program that is part of Drexel’s Autism Institute completed its first year in helping young adults with autism find internships and employment on campus. The program known as Project SEARCH is a joint effort involving Drexel, Hill Freedom World Academy, the Philadelphia School District, the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Department of Behavioral Health and Disability Service and Community Integrated Services.

In all, eight students with autism were part of an inaugural class that rotated through three 10-week internships at several campus locations, including the University’s Dragon Card office, Barnes & Nobel, Event Services and University Housing. The goal of the program is to help students with autism transition to independence as they enter the world beyond high school.

Everyone Can Eat at New Café

Drexel’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities partnered with Drexel’s Center for Hospitality & Sport Management, the Vetri Community Partnership, Giant Food Stores and others to open a unique restaurant called EAT Café. The restaurant at 3820 Lancaster Avenue is designed to be a place where anyone can eat regardless of their financial status. The restaurant allows diners to pay whatever they can afford for their meals.

Unlike traditional soup kitchens, the EAT Café is designed to serve as a crossroads to the community. Anyone can enjoy a meal, while paying more, less or nothing than the actual cost. EAT, which stands for Everyone at the Table, is the first café of its kind to open with the backing of a higher education institution. The restaurant also employs residents from the local Mantua, West Powleton and Powelton Village communities.

Dornsife Center Is Cooking

Drexel alum Brian Lofink has spent the past year offering cooking workshops at the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships.

The workshops are available to students and residents and offer tips on healthy regional cuisines, cooking creatively for one person and suggestions for working parents. Lofink, who received a culinary arts degree from Drexel in 2003, is the executive chef at Graduate Hospital’s Sidecar Bar & Grille. He said the cooking workshops bring people together, break down barriers and build relationships. Lofnik, an adjunct professor at Drexel’s Center for Hospitality and Sport Management, said the workshops are a way to teach students and residents healthy food and eating habits.

The workshops, which are free and open to the public, began after the Dornsife Center received a grant from GlaxoSmithKline. Health and wellness are core tenets of the Dornsife Center.

Fundraising & Financials

Academics, Co-op, Research are the Focus as Drexel’s Most Ambitious Campaign Goes Public

On a crisp autumn day, students, faculty and professional staff joined dedicated Drexel volunteers, donors and leaders in the Great Court of the Main Building to launch the public phase of the University’s most ambitious fundraising campaign. This $750 million effort offers an unprecedented opportunity to catalyze a new era of impact at Drexel.

The theme of our campaign, The Future Is a Place We Make, reflects Drexel’s history as a proving ground for talent that can creatively address emerging societal needs and our growth as a catalytic university — one that will fundamentally determine what tomorrow looks like.

Every day, we are creating breakthroughs and technologies that yield tangible solutions to pressing issues like air and water quality; cybersecurity; energy use; and inclusive economic development. Through our unique model of experiential education, which is founded on co-op but also includes myriad research and entrepreneurial opportunities, we teach our students to turn their ideas into action and go on to become the trailblazers of their generation. And we forge partnerships with neighbors and civic and industry leaders to build a stronger Philadelphia — and in the process, create models for cities and societies everywhere.

This campaign will focus on securing the resources our students and faculty need to continue this vital work and take it to the next level. Priorities include endowed scholarships and professorships; stipends for unpaid co-ops in nonprofit, arts and cultural sectors; interdisciplinary teaching and research; academic advising and student support services; state-of-the-art learning environments; and academically driven civic engagement opportunities.

We have also set non-financial goals, particularly increasing alumni engagement with Drexel and fostering a lasting culture of philanthropy at the University. These efforts will help build a pipeline of donors who can support Drexel’s ambitions in the decades to come.

Since the campaign’s foundational quiet phase, which began on December 1, 2013, more than 31,000 donors have committed more than $410 million — nearly equal to the closing total of our previous campaign, Dream It. Do It. This includes naming gifts for the Dornsife School of Public Health and the Thomas R. Kline School of Law, which are two of the largest gifts in Drexel history. In addition, donor investments have established more than 100 new endowed scholarship and fellowship funds and 10 named, endowed professorships.

We also raised nearly $4 million to support cultural-sector and global co-ops; $7.5 million for athletics and recreation; approximately $13 million for research centers and institutes; and more than $18 million to create vibrant spaces that facilitate social, spiritual and cultural life on campus.

This campaign’s public phase, which is projected to conclude on June 30, 2021, will further this momentum, leveraging the confidence that foundations and corporations have in Drexel as well as the pride of alumni, parents and friends.

We are at a critical juncture in our evolution as a global urban research university. The investments we make today in our people and programs will determine how we rise to the challenges and opportunities before us. Given the talent of our students, faculty and professional staff, I know we will make the most of this campaign and the opportunities it affords to strengthen Drexel academically and financially for years to come.

Financial Summary

Drexel is proactively addressing the growing competitive and financial pressures on higher education in several ways. We have enhanced access and affordability by keeping tuition, room, board and fee increases low, and by increasing our commitment to financial aid. We are focusing on academic and research quality and outcomes to enhance the value of a Drexel degree. And, we are continuing to evaluate expenses, pursue new revenue-generating opportunities, and maximize our overall efficiencies as an institution. These efforts have kept Drexel on strong financial footing and positioned the University to thrive in the years ahead.

Drexel and its subsidiaries increased overall net assets by $34.8 million in fiscal year 2017. As of June 30, 2017, the University’s total consolidated net assets grew to $1.255 billion, up from $1.220 billion in fiscal year 2016.

Perhaps the biggest financial success story of 2017 was the endowment performance. Drexel University’s endowments totaled $677.4 million, and Drexel’s total pooled assets — which do not include internally held real estate — had a return of 14.7 percent. The strong overall performance landed Drexel in the top 11 percent of endowments and foundations ranked by the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service, a leading benchmark for U.S. institutional assets.

About the 2017 President’s Report

The President’s Report highlights the endeavors undertaken by Drexel faculty, professional staff, and students during the past year — work that distinguishes the University as a place for leadership in student success, academics, experiential learning, research, and community engagement.